Museum overhaul to reflect history

The facility will close for two years as it is revamped

By Kenneth C. Crowe II

Published 10:03 pm, Monday, September 30, 2013

Photo: Paul Buckowski

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Mark Koziol, Watervliet Arsenal museum specialist, talks about a model 1857 Napoleon gun Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at the Watervliet Arsenal museum in Watervliet, NY. These types of guns were used in the Civil War. The museum will close for two years so work can be done on the exhibits. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

Mark Koziol, Watervliet Arsenal museum specialist, talks about a model 1857 Napoleon gun Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at the Watervliet Arsenal museum in Watervliet, NY. These types of guns were used in the Civil ... more

Photo: Paul Buckowski

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A view of a barrack's bell, made by Meneely Foundry out of Troy and used on the enlisted men's barracks, seen on display Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at the Watervliet Arsenal museum in Watervliet, N.Y. The museum will close for two years so work can be done on the exhibits. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

A view of a barrack's bell, made by Meneely Foundry out of Troy and used on the enlisted men's barracks, seen on display Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at the Watervliet Arsenal museum in Watervliet, N.Y. The museum ... more

Photo: Paul Buckowski

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A view of a French valliere artillery system on Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at the Watervliet Arsenal museum in Watervliet, N.Y. The museum will close for two years so work can be done on the exhibits. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

A view of a French valliere artillery system on Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at the Watervliet Arsenal museum in Watervliet, N.Y. The museum will close for two years so work can be done on the exhibits. (Paul ... more

Photo: Paul Buckowski

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A view of a bunker buster bomb Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at the Watervliet Arsenal museum in Watervliet, NY. The museum will close for two years so work can be done on the exhibits. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

A view of a bunker buster bomb Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at the Watervliet Arsenal museum in Watervliet, NY. The museum will close for two years so work can be done on the exhibits. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

Photo: Paul Buckowski

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A view of various military rifles on display Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at the Watervliet Arsenal museum in Watervliet, N.Y. The museum will close for two years so work can be done on the exhibits. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

A view of various military rifles on display Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at the Watervliet Arsenal museum in Watervliet, N.Y. The museum will close for two years so work can be done on the exhibits. (Paul Buckowski ... more

Photo: Paul Buckowski

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Mark Koziol, Watervliet Arsenal museum specialist, places some photographs on a table Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at the Watervliet Arsenal museum in Watervliet, N.Y. The center photograph is of two men standing next to bags of powder used to fire 16 inch guns. The museum will close for two years so work can be done on the exhibits. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

Mark Koziol, Watervliet Arsenal museum specialist, places some photographs on a table Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at the Watervliet Arsenal museum in Watervliet, N.Y. The center photograph is of two men standing ... more

Photo: Paul Buckowski

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A view of some of the military cannons Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at the Watervliet Arsenal museum, in Watervliet, N.Y. The museum will close for two years so work can be done on the exhibits. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

A view of some of the military cannons Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at the Watervliet Arsenal museum, in Watervliet, N.Y. The museum will close for two years so work can be done on the exhibits. (Paul Buckowski / ... more

Photo: Paul Buckowski

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Museum overhaul to reflect history

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Watervliet

The Watervliet Arsenal Museum will stand down for the next two years as it revamps how the arsenal's two centuries of active duty is told.

Monday was the last day the museum, which is housed in a cast iron warehouse erected in 1859, was open in its present format.

"We're going to tidy up the way it's going to tell the history of the Watervliet Arsenal and the Benet Weapons Labs," said Bob Pfeil, the museum director and curator.

The museum opened in 1987, drawing on the historic artifacts, documents, photos, drawings and materials that have been collected at the arsenal since it opened in 1813. The museum also has objects from armories that were closing.

Not all the items in the museum's collection will be at the arsenal in two years. Working with the U.S. Army Center of Military History, some artifacts from the arsenal's museum will head to other military museums while others are added to the Watervliet holdings.

The Center of Military History is coordinating efforts to bring the collections and displays at each military museum in line with its speciality and story line, said John Snyder, an arsenal spokesman.

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That means some of the arsenal's cannons will move to Fort Sill in Oklahoma, where the Army's artillery museums are located. The armor designed at the arsenal for trucks deployed in Iraq will go to the Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis in Virginia.

The arsenal museum will receive items such as a saddle made there in the 19th century that's currently at another facility. Other objects will return to the arsenal where they were manufactured.

Mark J. Koziol, the arsenal's museum specialist, has written a first draft of the history the museum will tell in its new exhibits.

"We have 200 years of stories to tell," said Koziol.

From the 19th-century saddles to the special bunker buster bombs designed by Benet Labs and the arsenal for the war in Iraq, that's a lot of information.

"We made 7 million bullets during the Civil War per month," Pfeil said.

The museum's collections will remain accessible for arsenal engineers and scientists to study.